Quarter-finals preview of the Men´s Challenge Cup

The first leg of the quarter-finals in the Men´s Challenge Cup will see three matches over the upcoming weekend. Two of them will be derbies as the rivals from the Norwegian league Drammen HK and IL Runar will face each other and Belgium´s Initia Hasselt will take on the Benelux opponent Handball Esch from Luxembourg.

The fourth pairing SKA Minsk (BLR) vs Radnički Kragujevac (SRB) will join the action only during the second weekend as both matches will be played in the Belarusian capital.

For both teams the quarter-final appearance is a huge success, but there could be even more to achieve in this campaign. Hasselt had to fight their way through from the first round of the competition, Esch started one stage later. Read more about the encounter here

The clash of two Norwegian teams is even more attractive as two neighbours from the standings of the domestic league will lock horns and both teams met just on Wednesday. Drammen won the tight match 33:32 and succeeded in the first encounter of the season last December as well (35:31). The 1996 winners of this competition Drammen are still the only team who manage to beat Runar on their court this season.

Turkish side managed to eliminate rivals from Bulgaria and Greece on their way to the top eight of the competition. Now they hope for a similar success against the currently fifth team of the Romanian league.

Further information
Find the results of the matches here directly after the end